Did LeBron James really say he wants ‘nothing to do with white people’? Alleged racist comment decoded

2 years ago today, LeBron James appeared on an episode of his production ‘The Shop’, speaking about how he initially avoided white company in high school.

LeBron James has been a beacon of hope in the fight for racial equality and social justice over this past summer. As the face of the NBA, he has exuded his charisma and used his voice to highlight important issues of race. Importantly, he spoke up vehemently against the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

In the light of the NBA players boycotting playoff games, a number of racist elements have tried to devalue their stand. They have tried to use players’ own statements against them. This is just another of those cases.

Did LeBron James say he wants ‘nothing to do with white people’?

On the concerned episode of The Shop, LeBron is quoted as saying:

“I went to an all-white Catholic high school. So, when I first went to the ninth grade in high school, I was also like, I’m not ****ing with white people. I was so institutionalized growing up in the hood, it was like, ‘they don’t ***k with us, they don’t want us to succeed.”

“I’m going to this school to play ball and that’s it. I don’t want nothing to do with white people. I don’t believe that they want anything to do with me. It’s me and my boys, we going to high school together, we’re here to hoop.”

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This may seem fishy at first, until you hear what his friend Maverick Carter says next:

“Sport and basketball, it’s the most unifying thing. By the end of the year, all of us were best friends. Our black friends from the hood was coming (to play), his white friends … and we were just all having a ****ing great time.”

As you can see, LeBron James’ words have been taken out of context to try to depict him as a racist, when he’s really recounting how he felt as a black kid from the hood in high school. For a player of his talent, there definitely will be haters in hordes, and they latch on to quotes like this in order to bring him down.